The Stories We Tell
by IrishSunrise
Summary: Santana is excited to go to her first haunted house with Noah and the new girl, Brittany. Childhood!Brittana.


"Hey, _Santana_." Noah Puckerman popped up next to Santana as she was stuffing two folders and a math workbook into her red _Power_ _Rangers_ backpack. He pushed an open palm against her shoulder, like he was trying to be friendly but couldn't help being rough.

"Hey!" Santana snapped. "Don't." She shot him a glare as she zipped her bag. Noah was always talking to her at school, even though he was kind of mean to Santana.

Noah sat on the edge of Santana's coat cubby and swung his tan little legs. "Wanna come with me to a haunted house tonight?" He picked at the name tag on the ledge beside him. Santana, it said in perfect print, and underneath, _Santana_, in her teacher's pretty cursive.

Santana frowned and slung her backpack over her shoulders. "You mean the one in that old factory downtown?" She'd never been to a haunted house before. Haunted houses sounded scary. But she didn't want Noah to think she was a baby. She thinks that Noah thinks she's tough for a girl and that's why he likes her.

"Yeah. My mom said I could ask _three people_," he bragged.

"So who else did you ask?" Santana asked, considering. "Come on, the bell rang already."

Noah slipped off the wooden ledge and followed Santana through the door of the second grade classroom. "Hey, shove off!" he snapped at a skinny kid with brown hair and freckles when he accidentally jostled against him. He followed Santana as she wove through the crowd outside the door.

"Your costume's pretty boring, don't you think?" Santana sneered at Noah, glancing over at him as they walked down the long hallway, past the red, blue, and yellow handprint rainbow mural on the wall. "It's just your Boy Scout uniform. It doesn't even count as a costume."

"Yeah, it _does. _It's _cool. _Look at all the badges I got," Noah said indignantly, pointing at his chest. "Besides, yours is lamer."

Santana rolled her eyes. "No, it's _not. _At least mine's a real costume," she said.

She was dressed as Pocahontas, with a colorful fabric band set low around her forehead, a faux suede dress, and brown sandals. Her favorite part of the outfit was the fringe on the sleeves. There were turquoise beads tied on the ends of each string. "Watch," she'd commanded a group of girls at recess earlier, and then she'd held her arms out and spun around to make the fringe fly. She also liked the way the dress was cut at a slant on the bottom. It covered her scraped knee.

"Yeah, but Pocahontas is lame," Noah said. "And it looks stupid with your backpack. My mom says _Power_ _Rangers_ is an old show."

"It's an _awesome _show. And Pocahontas is _not _lame. She's fierce and she talks to animals," Santana retorted. "Anyway, you never told me who else is coming to the haunted house."

"Finn and Brittany."

They'd made it to the lobby of the elementary school. Noah pushed through the front door ahead of Santana. They ran across the sidewalk toward their waiting school bus, #9.

"The new girl? You invited her?" Santana asked, surprised, as they joined the line outside the yellow bus. _Brittany Susan Pierce. _Santana thought the girl's name in her head. That was how she'd introduced herself on Tuesday, her first day. Santana kind of wanted to talk to her. She saw her on the monkey bars at recess with a couple other girls. Santana hoped she would look when she spun around in her Pocahontas dress, but she hadn't.

"She was static cling," Santana thought out loud.

"Huh?" Noah asked.

"Her costume." Brittany had been wearing black leggings and a black long-sleeved shirt today. She had socks pinned all over her clothing, and she'd cut the bottom out of a lime green laundry basket and pulled it up around her waist. Santana thought it was kind of a genius idea.

"Oh, yeah. She's so weird. Did you see the underwear?" Puck sneered.

"No," Santana lied, thinking about the pair of small pink polka-dotted underpants that had been pinned to Brittany's back. Santana would be too embarrassed to show everybody her underpants. She wonders if they were Brittany's underpants.

"Well, my mom made me invite her because she knows her mom." Noah grabbed the metal handrail inside the bus, pulled himself onto the bottom step, and turned around to face Santana. "So do you wanna come or not?"

"Okay, fine. But move!" Santana said impatiently.

* * *

><p>"Are you scared about your first haunted house?" Santana's mom asked her that night as she zipped up Santana's purple windbreaker in the front hallway. Her mom had made her change out of her Pocahontas dress because it was too cold out at night.<p>

"No," Santana lied. Then she asked, "Are they scary?"

Her mom smiled at her. "They can be. If you get too scared, just tell Mrs. Puckerman. You don't have to go through it if you get too scared."

"I won't be _that _scared," Santana said. "If Noah can do it, so can I. They're just regular people in there. Not really ghosts or anything. Right?"

"That's right, mi'ja," her mom said, amused. She peeked through the window in the door. "Looks like they're here. You have fun tonight, okay? I know you'll remember to thank Mrs. Puckerman."

"Okay," Santana said. Her mom kissed her on the top of the head and opened the door. "Bye!" Santana called as she bounded down the front steps toward Mrs. Puckerman's mini van.

She pulled on the handle of the sliding door of the van and leaned her whole weight into opening it. She clambered on up into the van and slammed the door behind her. She got it shut tight on the first try.

"How are you, Santana?" Mrs. Puckerman asked from the driver's seat. "Ready for some spooky?"

"Yeah," Santana answered. Her eyes flickered to the backseat, where Finn was sitting quietly next to a lanky blond girl with freckles. "Hi," she said uncertainly, glancing shyly at them. Finn gave a little wave, but Brittany just kind of looked at her.

"You can sit there." Noah pointed toward the bucket seat beside him.

Santana stumbled past his legs and plopped into the seat, pulling her seat belt across her shoulder. She peeked into the backseat at Brittany as she fit the metal end of her belt into the buckle. Brittany was looking at her. Santana faced forward quickly, embarrassed. She felt Brittany kick the back of her seat.

"Sorry," Brittany said.

Noah turned to stare at Brittany.

"That's okay," Santana said. "_Noah_. Stop it."

"What?" Noah asked, annoyed.

"Staring!" Santana said.

"Santana, do you know Brittany?" Mrs. Puckerman asked.

"Um, kinda," Santana said. "Like, from school."

"She just moved here from Indiana," Mrs. Puckerman continued. "I work with her mom. Your mom is lovely, Brittany." She craned her neck to look at Brittany in the rearview mirror.

Brittany smiled shyly. Santana didn't turn to look at her again. She sort of wished she was sitting next to her. She hoped Brittany would say something, but Noah immediately leaned over to show Santana his new Gameboy game. She watched him play the whole way to the haunted house. She was annoyed. He kept dying at the same point in the game. Santana knew she could beat it, but Noah didn't offer to let her play.

* * *

><p>The old factory was on the edge of town. There was a haunted house inside the factory, and a haunted trail ride outside that snaked into the dark, wooded area between two cornfields.<p>

"You kids wanna go through the haunted house, or should we stick to the haunted hayride for now?" Mrs. Puckerman asked once they were inside the factory, waiting in line at the ticket booth.

"Which one's scarier?" Noah asked loudly. "I wanna go on the scary one!"

"I think the inside one is scarier. Is everyone okay with that, or should we start with the hayride? It's okay if you want to try that one first, or if you don't want to do the haunted house at all," Mrs. Puckerman said kindly.

"We want the scary one!" Noah shouted.

"Noah, inside voice, please. Let somebody else talk, honey."

"Yeah, I want the inside one, too," Santana said.

She glanced at Brittany, who was nervously chewing on her bottom lip, and suddenly felt torn. She wanted the new girl to think she was brave, but she didn't want her to be scared, either.

"Actually, I kinda want to start with the hay ride," she said, changing her mind.

"Brittany? Finn? What do you guys think?" Mrs. Puckerman asked patiently.

Finn twisted his face up in thought and shrugged.

"Okay," Brittany said, and glanced at Santana. Santana smiled at her.

"Aww, you guys are such babies," Noah said, bummed out.

Santana wanted to tell him to shut his face, but she didn't want his mom to hear and yell at her. So she settled for glaring at him instead. She liked that Brittany had smiled at her.

And she was kind of relieved that she didn't have to face the scary haunted house yet.

The lady behind the ticket booth put an orange paper wristband around each of their wrists, and they made their way back outside. Santana noticed Brittany lagging behind a bit, messing with her wristband. She glanced at Noah, and then slowed a little bit to walk with Brittany.

"What's wrong?" she asked Brittany.

Brittany glanced up at her and held her arm out. "It's stuck to my arm hairs," she said, making a face.

"I hate when that happens," Santana said. "Here." She curled a hand gently around Brittany's wrist, below the bracelet, and brought it up to her face. Ever so slowly, she unstuck the sticky part from Brittany's skin and folded it over onto itself, so the sticky part was covered. "There ya go."

"You fixed it!" Brittany said, smiling and spinning the bracelet on her wrist. "Thanks."

"Mhm," Santana hummed, smiling.

"Santana! Hurry up!" Noah yelled from up ahead.

"Wait up!" Santana yelled as she and Brittany ran to catch up with the group.

* * *

><p>Santana made sure to sit next to Brittany on the hayrack ride. She was on the inside; Brittany was next to the edge. The hay made her nose itch and stuck into the backs of her thighs. She was glad her mom had made her change into jeans.<p>

When the hayrack was full of people, the tractor pulling it lurched ahead and pulled them down the trail and into the woods. It was cold when the tractor was moving. Santana sat with the side of her leg and her shoulder touching Brittany's. After a minute or so, rubbery skeletons and ghosts started popping out of the trees, complete with wailing and cackling sound effects.

Brittany jumped the first time it happened and leaned away from the edge, into Santana. Santana noticed that Brittany had her eyes squeezed close. She kind of wanted to put her arm around Brittany, but then she thought that would be weird. Plus, Noah and Finn would see. They were sitting right behind them.

Further along the trail, people dressed in rags, with blood smeared across their chests and faces, screamed and acted out torture scenes. Brittany put her gloved hands over her ears and shook her head a little bit.

Santana felt bad. "Hey, Brittany," she ventured.

Brittany didn't answer.

"Brittany," she said louder, pulling one of Brittany's hands away from her ear.

Brittany looked up at her, eyebrows knitted together.

"It's okay. It's all fake. Look, see that boy?" Santana pointed across Brittany at a teenaged boy dressed in rags, holding a sickle.

"I don't wanna look," Brittany said.

"Okay, I'll tell you, then. He's super pale. I think he's sick. I bet his mom made him chicken noodle soup today."

Brittany's hands were clasped in her lap, and she was staring down at them resolutely. Santana hesitated before wiggling one of her hands in between Brittany's. Brittany opened the gloved fingers of her left hand to slip them in between Santana's. She held on tightly.

"His mom probably made him chicken noodle soup and brought it to him in bed, so he could eat it and snuggle with his stuffed lizard at the same time," Santana continued.

Brittany giggled a little bit and glanced up at Santana. "Stuffed lizard?"

"Yeah. He thinks he's too old for teddy bears. Lizards are tougher," Santana shrugged. She had a stuffed lizard at home.

There were more screams on Brittany's side of the hayrack. Brittany flinched and closed her eyes.

"That one looked like an old lady," Santana said. "Or maybe her hair was just spray-painted gray. She kinda looked like my grandma, actually. My grandma says she doesn't have gray hairs, but she does. I saw them. I looked really close when she was taking a nap in her chair one day."

"My mom says she has gray hairs, but I can't see them," Brittany said. "I think they're indivisible."

"You mean invisible? If my hair ever turns gray, I'm going to shave it all off and go bald," Santana announced.

"I'm going to dye mine pink," Brittany said.

"Or blue?" Santana asked.

"Or rainbow!" Brittany said.

"We'll be the coolest grandmas," Santana said.

"Duh," Brittany said, giggling. Then she jumped. "What was that noise?"

"Hang on, I'll check." Santana looked over Brittany's head. "Oh, it's just a group of, uh, pink flamingos battling a… rhino."

Brittany dissolved into giggles. "Who's winning?" she asked.

"The pink flamingos, of course," Santana said, laughing. "They're super fierce."

"I love pink flamingos," Brittany said. "You know why they're pink?"

"Yeah, because they eat a lot of shrimp!" Santana said.

"No, their feathers turned white, and they dyed them pink so they could be like all the cool grandmas."

They laughed so hard that Noah shoved at Santana from behind and told them to shut up and quit laughing like dumb girls. Santana reached around to slap at him without letting go of Brittany's hand.

* * *

><p>Santana sat next to Brittany on the way home. As they pulled into Santana's driveway, Brittany yanked off her orange wristband.<p>

Santana held out her hand. "Here, I'll take it. I can throw it away when I get inside."

Brittany handed her the twisted orange band, smiling. Santana smiled back and unbuckled her seatbelt.

"Bye," Santana said, still smiling at Brittany as she ducked out of the mini van. "Bye, Noah and Finn."

"Later, Lopez," Noah said.

"Noah!" Santana heard Mrs. Puckerman scold her son right before she slammed the door on their voices.

Santana ran to the front porch and waved from the door. Then she hurried inside and clambered upstairs to her room.

"Santana, how was the haunted house?" her mother called from the den.

"Good!" Santana yelled back.

"Come tell me about it!"

"Just a second!"

Santana hurried to her room, set Brittany's torn wristband on her unmade bed, and pulled her own off her wrist with a snap. Then she laid them both neatly in the drawer of her bedside table. She felt all warm inside from making a new friend.


End file.
